How to find the best budget bike for you

If you are new to cycling or looking to get a bike without breaking the bank there are heaps of great budget-friendly bikes out there. So what can you get for your money at this end of the spectrum?

The reality is that not all bikes are made equal and knowing what you are looking for can make your money go further and save you from costly upgrades later down the road. Ollie Bridgewood delves a little deeper by purchasing the best bike he can find for $450/£400.

How to spot a bargain

On his mission to find the best bike he could at around this price point Ollie came across the Boardman SLR 8.6 road bike. It’s a brand new bike and cost him £450 after being reduced from £650. Ollie settled on the Boardman after looking at bikes of comparable price or spec from other brands such as Specialized, Trek and Triban (Decathlon’s own cycling brand) however these either came with lower grade components or cost around £100 more than the Boardman.

• Read more: The true cost of cycling: What gear should you buy to get started?

Something that can make a massive difference at this price point is shopping around to find sales or end-of-line reductions as these can bring higher-spec bikes into your budget. With the current state of the bike industry, a lot of brands are sitting on more stock than they know what to do with resulting in a lot of them offering their bikes at a reduced price, so take your time to browse the options thoroughly.

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It can be worthwhile investing some time in shopping around for the best deal

The cycling industry is currently in a challenging state right now, but that can ultimately be a good thing for a consumer. It might take a bit more research and shopping around but with a lot of surplus stock sitting around bargains are there to be had. Don’t just take the price of a bike as gospel, instead spend some time researching other retailers or similar models from other brands to see if you can get a better deal.

Frame and fork

Bikes at this price point will typically feature an aluminium frame and a carbon fibre fork. This is typical for bikes at this price with the carbon fibre fork offering some vibration dampening to take some of the harshness out of the road. The finishing kit of the bike is largely unbranded OEM (Original Equipment of Manufacturer) and is a place where brands can save money, it is nothing fancy but it is all perfectly functional.

Rim brakes rather than disc brakes

In an attempt to keep costs lower, bikes in this range will typically have rim brakes. These are less desirable than disc brakes, offering less power and feel but they allow for lower-cost components to be used as rim brakes cost significantly less than hydraulic disc brakes, as do the wheels.

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Rim brakes are a cheaper option than disc brakes

A nice touch on the Boardman SLR 8.6 road bike that Ollie bought in this video is the use of deep drop rim brake callipers. As the name suggests, these feature a deeper profile, aimed at allowing the fitment of wider tyres. The current trend in cycling is to run wider 28-32mm tyres for added comfort and better rolling resistance. This is something that rim brake bikes have suffered with in the past, limited by the calliper clearance, however, the deep drop allows for 28mm or slightly wider tyres to be fitted.

• Read more: Why tyre pressure and tyre width matter so much for cycling

The groupset

A lot of bikes at this price point make use of Shimano’s entry-level road groupset Claris. This uses an eight-speed cassette that is paired with a double chainring chainset upfront. Although it might be Shimano’s entry-level groupset it does benefit from the trickle-down of technology used on the higher-end groupsets like 105 and Ultegra.

• Read more: Complete guide to road bike groupsets 2024

The shifting is positive with the eight-speed cassette having more relaxed setup tolerances than higher-speed groupsets. This makes maintaining and adjusting the gears ideal for any budding home mechanics as they wear in. Some bikes at this price point might use Shimano’s Sora groupset which is the next step up in the brand’s hierarchy and increases the cassette from eight to nine-speed.

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A mixed groupset is common at this price point to keep costs down

On the Boardman, a 50/34 compact chainset is fitted, which is ideal for a broad range of gears without them being too hard or too easy. Paired with the chainset is an 11-32 cassette which provides a wide range of gears to help on steep hills as well as on fast descents. Being eight-speed, the jumps between each gear will be more noticeable than on an 11 or 12-speed group but it is not something major.

Another cost-saving measure that’s common across a lot of entry to intermediate bikes is not speccing the complete groupset. Sometimes this can take the form of using some parts from a lower-tier groupset or it can mean using components from a different brand entirely. Ollie’s Boardman for example uses an FSA chainset instead of the Shimano Claris which is aimed at bringing the cost down without compromising on performance.

The wheelset

This is an area that commonly sees the most effort in cost-saving from brands. The wheels that come on most entry-level bikes tend to lack the stiffness that some more premium wheels can offer. If you think you’re likely to do hard sprint efforts or like to throw a bike through corners the wheels are going to be noticeably flexible. This might be an area that you look to upgrade as and when the time comes to replace them.

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The wheelset is a place that brands look to save money with the wheels typically heavy and more flexi than more premium wheelsets

For the most part, the wheels that come as standard are going to be absolutely fine for typical cycling and will be easy and cheap to maintain. Budget wheels are by no means going to prevent you from enjoying the sensation of cycling.

• Read more: What’s the difference between cheap and expensive wheels?

What are some of the drawbacks of a budget bike?

As much as they represent amazing value, budget bikes do come with their disadvantages - one of them being the weight.

Budget road bikes are a lot heavier than more expensive models that use carbon fibre in their construction as well as more premium wheels and build kits that all help to keep the weight low. Budget road bikes will typically come in around the 10kg mark which is something that you will feel. If you’ve never ridden a high-end premium road bike it’s not something that will be noticeable, however on climbs and handling the bike, the weight will make things a little more difficult.

• Read more: Super lightweight bike tech: is this 3.6kg bike the lightest in the world?

A small inconvenience with bikes at this price is that the brake blocks that come as standard tend to be a solid block that bolts directly to the calliper. This has no effect on the performance of the bike but it does mean that whenever you need to replace your brake pads they will also need to be set up again. Something that Ollie suggests is replacing them with a cartridge system that uses a metal housing that a brake pad is then slotted into. This makes replacing the brake pads a quick and easy affair with no need to set the brake pads up each time.

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Solid brake blocks are a minor inconvenience and should be replaced with cartridge pads when it is time to replace them

The tyres you will find on a budget bike are typically cheaper versions of premium tyres or in the case of the Boardman Ollie’s using, a more robust and heavy-duty winter tyre. These are great for preventing punctures however, they are considerably less efficient than a race tyre. A race tyre with a latex or TPU inner tube is the best value upgrade you can make to your bike in terms of comfort, rolling resistance and weight saving.

Cycling is not about the bike

It is all too easy to get drawn into the marketing hype that governs a lot of cycling and think that to enjoy cycling you need all the latest and greatest kit. A good budget bike is the perfect antidote to this as it allows you access to the world of cycling and the enjoyment that it brings. At the end of the day, cycling is about the journey and the places that the bike can take you, not how flashy the bike actually is. Remember, a budget road bike can take you everywhere a more expensive road bike can.

Make sure to check back in a few weeks when Ollie has made some simple and budget-friendly upgrades to transform the bike. Changing the tyres, tubes and waxing the chain are all things that anyone can do for a relatively low cost that can completely change the feel of a bike out on the road.

Do you have any fond memories of your first road bike or any tips for anyone in the market? Let your thoughts be heard in the comments section below. For more tech features make sure to head over to our tech feature library which you can find here.

Oliver Bridgewood

GCN Tech Presenter

PhD Chemist turned cycling enthusiast, bringing the lab coat to GCN Does Science